Claude C Hopkins, the godfather of modern marketing whose 1923 book Scientific Advertising is still (shockingly?!) relevant, thought all advertisers should do some form of direct mail advertising first to learn how to fail. Not because they broadly needed to be humbled, but because they needed to be aware of the numbers game that was … Continue reading You’re Not Skillful Until You Know When You’re Lucky
Tag: science
(The Power Of) I’ll Have To Get Back To You
Sometimes someone says something so crazy to you, the best response is a simple, “I’ll have to get back to you.” Next time your patience is being tried, or also if someone says they’ll “have to get back to you,”reflect with this: https://twitter.com/forbes/status/1402388019420741633?s=21 If you can’t see the video, one government official is asking another, … Continue reading (The Power Of) I’ll Have To Get Back To You
Correlation Ain’t Causality
My dad talked at the TV watching games. “It doesn’t DO anything. You know they can’t hear you, right?” And now, and for years, I talk at games too. Teasing apart cause and effect is an important skill, or at least an important awareness we need in business and life. Just because two things happened … Continue reading Correlation Ain’t Causality
Invention Versus Innovation
Charles Townes, the Nobel prize-winning inventor of the laser, liked to tell this joke to explain the difference between invention and innovation: There’s a beaver and a rabbit looking at the Hoover Dam and the beaver says to the rabbit, “No, I didn’t build it, but it is based on an idea of mine.” Invention … Continue reading Invention Versus Innovation
It Takes Chaos And Confidence
In physics, a two-body problem is how we understand what happens when two objects interact with each other in space. Two-body problems are predictable. They’re like cause and effect, or the things in our professional work where we say, “If this happens, then we’ll do that.” Three-body problems, on the other hand, are not possible … Continue reading It Takes Chaos And Confidence
Scientific Thinking Isn’t About Being Certain
It’s a pet peeve of mine, ok? I get upset when people think science is all about certainty. Science isn’t about certainty. Science is about living with uncertainty and still making progress. It’s about mistakes, experiments, and learning. Thinking like a scientist, in life and with our careers, isn’t a bad approach, it’s the approach … Continue reading Scientific Thinking Isn’t About Being Certain
Chase Process, Not Performance
There’s always a shiny thing people are after. It always makes complete sense (with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight). “It was Sooooo obvious, how did we NOT see it coming?” Our natural instinct is to give chase. The problem with the instinct is it’s a shortcut. It’s mistaking the results for how the decision was … Continue reading Chase Process, Not Performance
An Honest Liar
James Randi made his first mark in entertainment as a magician. He went on to make his legacy as an investigator and debunker of pseudoscience. If you had to sum him up, you couldn’t do much better than the title of his documentary, “An Honest Liar.” Randi so loved the art and science of creating … Continue reading An Honest Liar
Common Sense Is At Least As Important As Science
We’ve all struggled to help somebody while they insisted on doing something illogical, suboptimal, or just plain senseless. Whether we care to admit it or not, we’ve all done the same things too. With the anti-science/pro-science crowds getting all flustered by the headlines lately, it’s a good time to step back and remember the importance … Continue reading Common Sense Is At Least As Important As Science
Leadership Lessons From Ms. Frizzle
In the 80s and 90s, Ms. Frizzle and her Magic School Bus were impossible for a kid to avoid. There were books, TV shows, and even video games, all with the parent/teacher/Presidential blessing of being labeled “educational!” And, to be honest - they were actually pretty great. With author Joanna Cole‘s passing, I was looking … Continue reading Leadership Lessons From Ms. Frizzle